How Jinx became a proper Titan
by bloodydisaster
Summary: Four times Jinx earned a hug from a Titan, plus one time somebody else did.


**AN: Just wanted to do something, so I made a 4+1 fic. Pointless and a bit fluffy. Also, there's Titans!**

**Cyborg.**

In that moment Jinx sort of hated Kid Flash.

He had run of to find Robin, leaving Jinx alone in the middle of a crowd of celebrating Titans. She admitted that talking to the leader was probably the best way to keep the Titans from accidentally attacking her, but that did still leave her woefully unprotected at the moment.

Maybe she should just sneak out. Sure, they were happy now and clearly in a loving mood, judging by the honestly alarming amount of hugging that was going on. Or where the Titans always so…huggy?... Anyway, it might be preferable to come back when they weren't as filled with adrenaline and didn't have a Freeze Ray at hand to deal with trespassing villains.

Jinx eyed the nearest exit, still uncertain if she wanted to use it. She looked around, but couldn't spot Kid Flash and hesitantly took a small step towards the exit. Then she froze when someone clad in yellow and black brushed past her, to run over and hug Aqualad.

Was that Bumblebee?

Better not go there. Jinx turned towards another exit and barely stopped herself from walking directly into Cyborg.

Oh, bad, bad. That was worse on so many levels.

Jinx locked her knees to keep herself from scrambling away and forced on a vicious smile.

"Hello Cyborg" she said pleasantly.

"Jinx" he answered, and Jinx was relieved that she couldn't find any surprise in his voice or his face. If he had noticed her before, he would know she wasn't up to anything bad.

Cyborg's face split into a wide grin. He looked honestly happy to see her, which reassured her enough to reign in her instincts and stand still, when he unexpectedly leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her.

Oh. This was a hug. He was hugging her.

Jinx relaxed as Cyborg squeezed her slightly and lifted her feet of the ground.

" 's good to see you, Jinx" He said, far too loudly, as his mouth was very close to her ears.

"You too" she mumbled into the hard press of his chest and was surprised to realize that she meant it.

**Starfire.**

There was some hypocrisy going on here, Jinx thought darkly as she balanced her way through the third and hopefully last step of the initiation. She would bet her boots that none of other had had to go through an initiation to become an Honorary Titan.

Still, she thought as a thrown rubber duck and two plush frogs failed to ruin her balance, she could understand the need for a little retribution. Besides, she hadn't wanted to call them out on the double standards. Most of the new Titans didn't know her from before, and she would like to avoid making an issue out of her former villainy. And honestly, she had expected much more resistance from the Titans. This ridiculous test seemed a small price to pay, if that was all it took to erase any lingering resentment.

Jinx paused momentarily when she came to the end of her current platform. Jumping was hard when walking on your hands, but acrobatics was Jinx's forte. She made it across the gap and landed on her hands without much effort, only to slide and fall when she discovered the surface was wet. A bucket tipped over and spilling its content, which she had initially thought to be purple paint, but clearly wasn't when the substance started expanding upon contact. Purple foam covered her and stiffened almost immediately, completely immobilizing her.

Wonderful. She was the horrible marshmallow man.

Sounds were muffled because of her covered ears, but she did hear when someone landed on the platform and leaned over her. There was a light tap on the surface of the purple stuff, which inexplicably cracked at the slight pressure and broke off of Jinx in large chunks. She looked up to see Starfire beaming down at her.

That at least answered the question of where the bizarre purple stuff came from.

"Congratulation!" Starfire said while pulling Jinx up "Although you did not complete your task, you fought with determination and great skill. It would be an honor to have you join the Titans, as I'm sure my friends will agree."

Jinx glanced to the sidelines where the other four Titans stood, who answered with "Yes!", "Definetly!" and "Just don't go into my room again."

Starfire immediately jumped on her, pulling her into a bone-crushing hug while yelling "Welcome!" Seriously, was this a normal hero thing? Did they really run around hugging each other constantly?

Jinx stumbled when she was released, only to gag horrified when Starfire picked up and swallowed a purple chunk that had previously been attached to Jinx's elbow.

"Let us go celebrate with the others." Starfire said and pushed a pile of the purple stuff back into the bucket, before offering a chunk to Jinx. "This is a great delicacy on my home planet." She explained cheerfully.

"Er…No thank you, and I think I need a shower before celebrating." Jinx said cringing away from the bucket.

As a chattering Starfire pulled her towards the door while holding a bucketful of purple stuff, which she then proceeded to offer the others, a dazed Jinx wondered what she had gotten herself into.

**Bumblebee.**

To keep some semblance of control over the twenty-something Titans scattered across the world, they held official gatherings three times a year. The main goal was to keep everybody up to date in any new developments on the villain scene, and the original idea had probably been something like a conference, where each hero would make a short summary of any notable discoveries they had made since their last meeting.

In reality they used the time to hang out and play for three days, while Robin snuck around and cornered each of them by turn, collecting data, which he would then present to all of them in an orderly fashion. Robin's briefings always came on the second day, allowing him to join in on the fun afterwards, and never lasted longer than an hour, as that was the maximum time some of them could be forced to sit through.

Out of consideration for those living in other parts of the world, there was an unnamed rule that you only had to appear once a year. That, coupled with the fact that the location switched between Jump City and Steel City, awakened Bumblebees competitive streak. For some reason most of the Titans saw the ones in Jump City as the "real" meetings, and skipped the ones hosted by Titans East. Bumblebee took this deeply personally and took to glaring at Robin every time their paths crossed during the gatherings. Though unfair, it was deeply amusing to watch Robin get increasingly twitchy as the days progressed, until he would inevitably start hiding behind Starfire on the last day.

Jinx was determined to show up at every single one of the meetings and could quickly conclude that the majority of the Titans where idiots. After one visit Jinx had already decided that the Steel City gatherings where better. In the future, when Bumblebee got increasingly frustrated and stepped up her game to reach new levels of party planning, this would be even more so. As of now, though, Jinx based her judgment on the fact that the Steel City tower was the newest. The Original Tower had only been intended for five people and as such, there were nowhere near enough bathrooms when all of the Titans showed up.

Jinx mentioned this off-handedly to Bumblebee, while they were both waiting in line to use the bathroom. She was caught off-guard when Bumblebee nearly tackled her to the ground, showing enough enthusiasm to compete with Beast Boy during a sugar-high, and proceeded to hug her with frankly alarming fierceness.

"Your friends are weird." Jinx told Kid Flash several hours later, when she thought no one was listening. She could practically _feel_ the Bumblebee shaped bruises forming.

He shrugged and smiled.

"You're one to talk. You shouldn't forget that I have met your old team mates." He said.

Jinx silently admitted defeat by letting him steal half of her waffle.

**Kole**.

"I don't think it's a good idea, I'm pretty sure it would bring down some of the roof if we crashed another wall." Jinx told Kole while glancing at Gnarrk, uncertain if he was listening too, "and I have some experience in breaking down walls. Most of it was even deliberate." She continued and was gratified when Kole laughed.

"I guess we'll just stay here then." Kole said and reached out to pat Gnarrks arm reassuringly. He made a sound in the back of his throat as answer, but didn't turn away from the fire.

Jinx followed Gnarrks transfixed gaze to the wall of fire that was currently keeping them trapped in this corner of the supermarket, before looking back at Kole.

"If you changed shape, the fire couldn't hurt you, right?" Jinx asked.

"No, but you would have to throw me." Kole said slowly, considering her answer. "but… Gnarrk doesn't want to admit this, but he isn't very comfortable in small enclosed spaces." She confided in a low voice looking apologetic.

"I'll stay with him. Don't really have a choice actually, I'm not fireproof." Jinx offered, "If that's okay with you, Gnarrk?"

Gnarrk finally looked away from the fire, he grunted what Jinx was pretty sure was an affirmative.

"If you're sure?" Kole asked.

Gnarrk nodded and as Kole changed into crystal, he picked her up and somehow managed to look gentle while throwing her through the wall of fire.

"Gnarrk" Gnarrk said and turned anxiously to Jinx. Well, she had brought this on herself.

"Why don't you sit down while we wait?" Jinx asked and patted the spot next to her. Gnarrk considered her for a moment; he glanced shortly towards the wall of fire before walking over and joining her on the pile of stuff. The impact when he sat was enough to lift Jinx a few inches in the air, but her landing was unexpectedly comfortable.

"This pile is surprisingly soft." She remarked and took a closer look at her makeshift chair.

Huh.

"Gnarrk, have you ever had marshmallows before?"

When Red Star and Kole put out the fire ten minutes later, Jinx's hands were covered with sticky sugar mass and Gnarrk couldn't speak because of an ill-advised attempt to eat eleven roasted marshmallows at once.

"What?" Jinx said "It's not as if they could sell them now."

Kole shook her head and smiled before hugging Jinx tightly.

This was clearly a Titan thing, Jinx thought, once again being crushed by a girl with a deceptively small frame. It was growing on her though, Jinx thought, as she looked over Kole's shoulder and saw Gnarrk, who had finally succeeded in swallowing and was wearing a blissful expression.

**+ Kid Flash**

Despite being at least as affectionate as the rest of the Titans, Kid Flash never hugged Jinx.

Jinx was pretty sure it was an accidental result of the first time she had been injured. An idiot with a flamethrower had hit her, and although the resulting burns on her chest and shoulders were superficial, they still made hugging agonizing.

Kid Flash had really wanted to hug her then, needing the reassurance. He had made several aborted movements in the first days, but always caught himself and diverted the motion into grabbing Jinx's hand or touching her cheek instead. Eventually he expelled the urge by pouncing on Beast Boy, who had been the one to pummel the bad guy, and hugging him so determinately that Beast Boy had to escape by changing shape.

After that, it became a habit for Kid Flash to squeeze her hand or brush her cheek whenever he was worried. It really didn't make much of a difference; he was resourceful. Even without the hugging that the rest of them favored, Kid Flash still managed to invade Jinx's personal space on a regular basis.

He had somehow gotten leave to use Jinx as his personal pillow, dropping his feet in her lap or leaning against her whenever the opportunity arose. She honestly didn't know when or how that had happened, and so found it hard to take the permission away again. She knew that a large part of it had happened that time she was drugged and spent an hour pitifully clinging to him on a park bench. Her memory was a bit fuzzy, but what she did remember was horrifying enough that she would much rather give Kid Flash free reign of her personal space, than ever bring up the incident again.

One time during breakfast, Jinx accidentally zapped Gnarrk with her powers, silencing the living room when she knocked him down in surprise. She hadn't slept well that night and Gnarrk had unexpectedly moved to hug her, appearing suddenly in her line of sight. Though she wouldn't admit it, in the corner of her eye, Gnarrk sometimes resembled Mammoth.

Jinx was very, _very_ sorry and repeatedly told Gnarrk so, until she was certain he believed it. She was rattled. Attacking somebody, especially Gnarrk who everybody knew she was close too, did not speak well of her control. And since her power was tied to her emotions, her resulting wariness after the misstep didn't do anything to improve her suddenly shaky control. She spent the rest of the morning shying away from any contact. She made sure to keep a gap of at least three feet between her and everybody else. Five feet with the kids, knowing that Raven would kill her if anything happened to them.

Kid Flash, though, stayed closer than usual. Jinx had gotten used to his lack of self-preservation long ago and didn't even question his constant presence anymore. He pointedly started laying his head on her lap whenever she sat on the couch. He was probably trying to prove that she was safe to be near, though Jinx couldn't tell if the point were made for the other Titans or for her own sake.

Either way, it worked. His faith in her was somewhat contagious and calmed her nerves after a few hours without any new incident. As soon as Gnarrk proved to be fine and showed no sign of offense, the other Titan's worry quickly dissolved into bemusement at Kid Flash's persistence.

"I'm a little surprised that you are getting away with that." Bumblebee said the second time she encountered them on the couch.

"It's the Kid Flash charm." He said, wiggling his eyebrows at Bumblebee while smirking.

Bumblebee leaned over the back of the couch and tilted her head to the side with a frown, as if to inspect him more thoroughly.

"No." Bumblebee finally said, turning to Jinx "I don't get it."

"It's not worth the trouble of kicking him off, he heals too quickly." Jinx said over Kid Flash's indignant splutter. "Besides, he's warm."

"She means hot." He said, his head still firmly placed in Jinx's lap.

"That's horrible." Jinx said, making a face at the wordplay.

Kid Flash only wiggled his eyebrows again in reply. Jinx was about to tell him to stop, when Bumblebee interrupted.

"Let me check." She said, while she reached down and touched his stomach. Both Jinx and Kid Flash went very still in surprise.

Kid Flash was built for speed, and therefore weren't as buff as some of the other boys, but he definitely still had some muscles going on. Such as the abs Bumblebee was currently touching…._much_ longer than what was necessary to check the temperature. She finally patted his stomach and pulled her hand away, looking very self-satisfied.

"You're right, that's very nice." She said to Jinx.

Kid Flash was a blur as he moved spluttering off the couch, away from Bumblebee. When he stilled it was clear that he was blushing furiously, his face almost matching his hair.

"_Bad_ touch." He choked out "and you're in a leadership position. That's harassment."

"If I made you uncomfortable, you're welcome to take it up with Robin" Bumblebee said sweetly. Kid Flash glanced at Jinx, who shrugged her shoulders in reply. She was not getting into this. He shook his head in defeat and sat down on the floor at Jinx feet. It was the closest he could be to her while staying out of Bumblebees reach, Jinx noticed.

"Here I am, keeping Jinx from blowing up the TV and all I get is abuse." He muttered, leaning his back against Jinx's legs.

Bumblebee ignored him.

"It's good to see you're feeling better." She said, squeezing Jinx's shoulder. She smirked in Kid Flash's direction before winking at Jinx and leaving.

"What is this, and why are we watching it?" Kid Flash grumbled after half a minute of silence.

"That is Project Runway, and we had been watching it for at least twenty minutes when Bumblebee showed up." Jinx said, trying to hide her amusement.

"Oh." he said "I was napping, before."

"I noticed." Jinx said and patted his shoulder lightly. When she left her hand there Kid Flash took it.

"I know you wouldn't blow up the television." He said solemnly and squeezed her hand lightly.

"I know" Jinx sighed. She tried squeezing his hand back, before deciding that this was ridiculous behavior. She leaned down and wrapped her arms around his shoulders instead.

Kid Flash hummed and pressed back into her hug. "This is new. Not that I am complaining. At all."

Jinx huffed and tilted her head slightly so her cheek touched his temple "I am a Titan, you know. Hugging is apparently what we do."


End file.
